TOM CRUISE BIOGRAPHY

Thomas Cruise
Mapother IV ( /ˈtɒməs
ˈkruːz
ˈmeɪpɒθər/;
born July 3, 1962), better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film
actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and
he has won three Golden Globe Awards.

Cruise's first appearance in a
major film was in 1981's Taps. His first leading role was in the film Risky
Business,[1] which was released in August 1983. After playing the role of a
heroic naval pilot in the popular and financially successful 1986 film Top Gun,
Cruise continued in this vein, playing a secret agent in a series of Mission:
Impossible action films in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. In addition to these
heroic roles, he has starred in a variety of other successful films such as Rain
Man (1988), Days of Thunder (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Jerry Maguire (1996),
Magnolia (1999), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai
(2003), Collateral (2004) and War of the Worlds (2005).

Since 2005, Cruise and Paula Wagner
have been in charge of the United Artists film studio,[2] with Cruise as
producer and star and Wagner as the chief executive. Cruise is also known for
his support of and adherence to the Church of Scientology.[3]

****

Background information

Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV

July 3, 1962

Syracuse, New York, U.S.

Occupation Actor, producer, writer,
director

Years active 1981–present

Spouse

Mimi Rogers (1987–1990)

Nicole Kidman (1990–2001)

Katie Holmes (2006–present)

Children Isabella, Connor Cruise
and Suri Cruise

****

Early
life

Cruise was born in Syracuse, New
York,[4] the son of Mary Lee (née Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and
Thomas Cruise Mapother III (died 1984),[5] an electrical engineer.[6] Cruise's
surname originates from his great-grandfather, Thomas Cruise O'Mara, who was
adopted by a Welsh immigrant and renamed 'Thomas Cruise Mapother'.[7][8][9]
Cruise is of German, Irish, and English ancestry.[10] He grew up in near
poverty, in a Catholic family dominated by an abusive father whom Cruise has
described as 'a merchant of chaos'.[11] He was beaten by his father, whom Cruise
has said was a bully and coward.

He was the kind of person where, if
something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life—how he’d
lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang! For me, it was like, 'There's
something wrong with this guy. Don't trust him. Be careful around him.'[11]

Cruise's family spent part of his
childhood in Canada, and Cruise attended Robert Hopkins Public School in Ottawa,
Ontario, for grades three, four, and five. The Mapother family then moved to the
suburb of Beacon Hill, so Cruise's father could take a position as a defense
consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces. There, Cruise completed grade six at
Henry Munro Middle School, part of the Carleton Board of Education,[12] where he
was active in athletics, playing floor hockey almost every night, showing
himself to be a ruthless player, and eventually chipping his front tooth. In the
game British bulldogs, he then lost his newly capped tooth and hurt his
knee.[13] Henry Munro was also where Cruise became involved in drama, under the
tutelage of George Steinburg.[14] The first play he participated in was called
IT, in which Cruise won the co-lead with Michael de Waal, one playing 'Evil',
the other playing 'Good'. The play met much acclaim, and toured with five other
classmates to various schools around the Ottawa area, even being filmed at the
local Ottawa TV station.[15] Cruise was bullied regularly in the 15 different
schools he attended in 12 years.[11] When Cruise was twelve, his mother left his
father, taking Cruise and his sister Lee Anne with her.[11]

He briefly attended a Franciscan
seminary in Cincinnati (on a church scholarship) and aspired to become a
Catholic priest.[16] In his senior year, he played football for the varsity team
as a linebacker, but he was cut from the squad after getting caught drinking
beer before a game.[17]

Career

Acting

1980s

Cruise first appeared in supporting
roles the 1981 films Endless Love and Taps, the latter in which he played a
crazed military school student. His first starring role was in the 1983 comedy
Losin' It. That same year he appeared in All the Right Moves and Risky Business,
which has been described as 'A Generation-X classic, and a career-maker for Tom
Cruise',[18] and which along with 1986's Top Gun, cemented his status as a star.

Cruise followed up Top Gun with The
Color of Money, which came out the same year, and which paired him with Academy
Award-winner Paul Newman. 1988 saw him star in Cocktail, which earned him a
nomination for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor. Later that year he starred with
Academy Award-winner Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, which won the Academy Award for
Best Film and Cruise the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best
Supporting Actor. Cruise finished the decade by portraying real-life paralyzed
Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic in 1989's Born on the Fourth of July, which earned
him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, the Chicago Film
Critics Association Award for Best Actor, the People's Choice Award for Favorite
Motion Picture Actor, a nomination for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading
Role, and Cruise's first Best Actor Academy Award nomination.

1990s

In 1994, Cruise starred along with
Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater in Neil Jordan's Interview with
the Vampire, a gothic drama/horror film that was based on Anne Rice's
best-selling novel. The film was well received, although Rice was initially
quite outspoken in her criticism of Cruise having been cast in the film, as
Julian Sands was her first choice. Upon seeing the film however, she paid $7,740
for a two-page ad in Daily Variety praising his performance and apologizing for
her previous doubts about him.[19]

In 1996, Cruise appeared as
superspy Ethan Hunt in the reboot of Mission: Impossible, which he produced. In
1996, he took on the title role in Jerry Maguire, for which he earned a Golden
Globe and his second nomination for an Academy Award. In 1999, Cruise costarred
with wife Nicole Kidman in the erotic Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut, and
played motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackey in the ensemble film Magnolia, for
which he received another Golden Globe and nomination for an Academy Award.

2000s

In 2000, Cruise returned as Ethan
Hunt in the second installment of the Mission Impossible films, releasing
Mission: Impossible II. The film was directed by Hong Kong director John Woo and
branded with his gun fu style, and it continued the series' blockbuster success
at the box office, taking in almost $547M in worldwide figures, like its
predecessor, being the third highest grossing film of the year. Cruise received
an MTV Movie Award as Best Male Performance for this film.[20] His next five
films were major critical and commercial successes.[21]</ref>[22] The following
year Cruise starred in the romantic thriller Vanilla Sky (2001) with Cameron
Diaz and Penélope Cruz. In 2002, Cruise starred in the dystopian science fiction
thriller, Minority Report which was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on
the science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick.

In 2003, he starred in the Edward
Zwick's historical drama The Last Samurai, for which he received a Golden Globe
nomination as best actor.[20] In 2005, Cruise worked again with Steven Spielberg
in War of the Worlds, which became the fourth highest grossing film of the year
with US$591.4 million worldwide. Also in 2005, he won the People's Choice Award
for Favorite Male Movie Star, and the MTV Generation Award.[20] Cruise was
nominated for seven Saturn Awards between 2002 and 2009, winning once.[20] Nine
of the ten films he starred in during the decade made over $100 million at the
box office.[21]

In 2006, he reprised his role as
Ethan Hunt in the third installment of the Mission Impossible film series,
Mission: Impossible III. The film was more positively received by critics than
its predecessor, and grossed nearly $400 million at the box office.[23] Cruise's
2007 film Lions for Lambs was a rare commercial disappointment. In 2008, Cruise
appeared in the hit comedy Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller and Jack Black. This
performance earned Cruise a Golden Globe nomination. Cruise's role in the
historical thriller Valkyrie released on December 25, 2008 to box office
success.[24] As of 2009, Cruise's films have grossed over $6.5 billion
worldwide.[25]

2010s

In March 2010, Cruise completed
filming the action-comedy Knight and Day, in which he re-teamed with former
costar Cameron Diaz; the film was released on June 23, 2010.[26] On February 9,
2010, Cruise confirmed that he would star in Mission: Impossible – Ghost
Protocol, the fourth Mission:Impossible film, which was released in December
2011.[27]

On May 6, 2011, Cruise was awarded
a humanitarian award from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and Museum of Tolerance
for his work as a dedicated philanthropist.[28]

Producing

Cruise partnered with his former
talent agent Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1993,[2] and the
company has since co-produced several of Cruise's films,[29] the first being
Mission: Impossible in 1996 which was also Cruise's first project as a producer.

Cruise is noted as having
negotiated some of the most lucrative film deals in Hollywood, and was described
in 2005 by Hollywood economist Edward Jay Epstein as 'one of the most powerful –
and richest – forces in Hollywood'. Epstein argues that Cruise is one of the few
producers (the others being George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry
Bruckheimer) who are regarded as able to guarantee the success of a
billion-dollar film franchise. Epstein also contends that the public obsession
with Cruise's tabloid controversies obscures full appreciation of Cruise's
exceptional commercial prowess.[30]

Cruise/Wagner Productions, Cruise's
film production company, is said to be developing a screenplay based on Erik
Larson's New York Times bestseller, The Devil in the White City about a real
life serial killer, H. H. Holmes, at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition.
Kathryn Bigelow is attached to the project to produce and helm. Meanwhile,
Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, is also developing a film
about Holmes and the World's Fair, in which DiCaprio will star.[31]

Breakup
with Paramount

On August 22, 2006, Paramount
Pictures announced it was ending its 14-year relationship with Cruise. In the
Wall Street Journal, chairman of Viacom (Paramount's parent company) Sumner
Redstone cited the economic damage to Cruise's value as an actor and producer
from his controversial public behavior and views.[32][33] Cruise/Wagner
Productions responded that Paramount's announcement was a face-saving move after
the production company had successfully sought alternative financing from
private equity firms.[34] Industry analysts such as Edward Jay Epstein commented
that the real reason for the split was most likely Paramount's discontent over
Cruise/Wagner's exceptionally large share of DVD sales from the Mission:
Impossible franchise.[35][36]

Management of United Artists

In November 2006, Cruise and Paula
Wagner announced that they had taken over United Artists film studio.[2] Cruise
acts as a producer and star in films for United Artists, while Wagner serves as
UA's chief executive. Production began in 2007 of Valkyrie, a thriller based on
the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler. The film was
acquired in March 2007 by United Artists. On March 21, 2007 Cruise signed on to
play Claus von Stauffenberg, the protagonist. This project marks the second
production to be greenlighted since Cruise and Wagner took control of United
Artists. The first was its inaugural film, Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert
Redford and starring Redford, Meryl Streep and Cruise. Lambs was released on
November 9, 2007,[37] opening to unimpressive box office revenue and critical
reception. In August 2008, Wagner stepped down from her position at United
Artists; she retains her stake in UA, which combined with Cruise's share amounts
to 30 percent of the studio.[38]

Relationships and personal life

Cruise had a relationship with his
Risky Business co-star Rebecca De Mornay; they cohabited in New York from
1983–85.[39][40][41][42]

Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers
on May 9, 1987; they divorced on February 4, 1990.[1] Rogers is generally
believed to have introduced Cruise to Scientology.[43] He met his second wife,
Nicole Kidman, on the set of their film Days of Thunder. The couple married on
December 24, 1990. He and Kidman adopted two children, Isabella Jane (born
December 1992) and Connor Antony (born January 1995).[1] They separated in
February 2001 when Kidman was three months pregnant; she later miscarried.[44]

Cruise was next romantically linked
with Penélope Cruz, his co-star in Vanilla Sky. That relationship ended in
2004.[45] In April 2005, Cruise began dating actress Katie Holmes. On April 27
that year, Cruise and Holmes, dubbed 'TomKat' by the media, made their first
public appearance together in Rome.[46] A month later, Cruise declared his love
for Holmes on The Oprah Winfrey Show famously jumping up and down on Winfrey's
couch during the show.[47] On October 6, 2005, Cruise and Holmes announced they
were expecting a child,[48] and their daughter, Suri, was born in April 2006. On
November 18, 2006, Holmes and Cruise were married at the 15th-century Odescalchi
Castle in Bracciano, Italy, in a Scientology ceremony attended by many Hollywood
stars.[49][50] The actors' publicist said the couple had 'officialized' their
marriage in Los Angeles the day before the Italian ceremony.[51] David Miscavige
served as Cruise's best man.[52]

Popularity

In 1990, 1991 and 1997, People
magazine rated him among the 50 most beautiful people in the world. In 1995,
Empire magazine ranked him among the 100 sexiest stars in film history. Two
years later, it ranked him among the top 5 film stars of all time. In 2002 and
2003, he was rated by Premiere among the top 20 in its annual Power 100 list.[1]

In 2006, Premiere ranked Cruise as
Hollywood's most powerful actor,[53] as Cruise came in at number 13 on the
magazine's 2006 Power List, being the highest ranked actor.[54] The same year,
Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity.[55]

In August 2006, 'a USA Today/Gallup
poll in which half of those surveyed registered an 'unfavorable' opinion of the
actor' was cited as a reason in addition to 'unacceptable behavior'[56] for
Paramount's non-renewal of their production contract with Cruise. In addition,
Marketing Evaluations reports that Cruise's Q score (which is a measure of the
popularity of celebrities), had fallen 40 percent. It was also revealed that
Cruise is the celebrity people would least like as their best friend. October
10, 2006 was declared 'Tom Cruise Day' in Japan; the Japan Memorial Day
Association said that he was awarded with a special day because he has made more
trips to Japan than any other Hollywood star.[57]

Controversy

Litigation

During Cruise's marriage to Nicole
Kidman, the couple endured public speculation about their sex life and rumors
that Cruise was gay. In 1998, he successfully sued the Daily Express, a British
tabloid which alleged that his marriage to Kidman was a sham designed to cover
up his homosexuality.[58] In May 2001 he filed a lawsuit against gay porn actor
Chad Slater. Slater had allegedly told the celebrity magazine Actustar that he
had had an affair with Cruise. Both Slater and Cruise denied this, and in August
2001, Slater was ordered to pay $10 million to Cruise in damages after Slater
declared he could not afford to defend himself against the suit and would
therefore default.[59] Cruise also sued Michael Davis, publisher of Bold
Magazine, who alleged but never confirmed that he had video that would prove
Cruise was gay. The suit was dropped in exchange for a public statement by Davis
that the video was not of Cruise, and that Cruise was heterosexual.[60]

After The Beast's publication of
their 50 Most Loathsome People of 2004, which included Cruise, Cruise's lawyer
Bertram Fields threatened to sue. Seeing the opportunity for nationwide
exposure, The Beast actively encouraged the lawsuit. No lawsuit was ever filed
and Cruise was included more prominently in the 2005 list.[61] In 2006, Cruise
sued cybersquatter Jeff Burgar to obtain control of the TomCruise.com domain
name. When owned by Burgar, the domain redirected to information about Cruise on
Celebrity1000.com. The decision to turn TomCruise.com over to Cruise was handed
down by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on July 5, 2006.[62]

Oprah
Winfrey Show

Cruise has made several expressions
of his feelings for Holmes to the media, most notably the 'couch incident' which
took place on the popular The Oprah Winfrey Show of May 23, 2005. Cruise 'jumped
around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell to one knee and repeatedly professed
his love for his new girlfriend'.[63] The phrase 'jumping the couch', fashioned
after 'jumping the shark', is used to describe someone 'going off the deep end'
in public in a manner extreme enough to tarnish his or her reputation.[64] It
enjoyed a short-lived popularity, being chosen by the editors of the Historical
Dictionary of American Slang as the 'slang term of the year' in 2005[65] and by
the nonprofit group Global Language Monitor as one of its top phrases for the
year.[66]

The 'couch incident' was voted No.1
of 2005's 'Most Surprising Television Moments' on a countdown on E![citation
needed] and No.5 at BoxOfficeProphets.com.[67] and was the subject of numerous
parodies, including the epilogue of Scary Movie 4, an episode of South Park, a
short on Sesame Street,[68] and an episode of Family Guy. Entertainment Weekly
put it on its end-of-the-decade, 'best-of' list, saying, 'Lesson learned: Tell,
don't show'.[69]

In early May 2008, Cruise
reappeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to celebrate 25 years in the film business.
The feature was a two hour special, the first hour was Oprah spending the day
with Cruise at his house in Telluride, Colorado on May 2.

Scientology

Cruise is an outspoken advocate for
the Church of Scientology. He became involved with Scientology in 1990 through
his first wife, Mimi Rogers.[70] He has said that Scientology, specifically the
L. Ron Hubbard Study Tech, helped him overcome dyslexia.[71] In addition to
promoting various programs that introduce people to Scientology, Cruise has
campaigned for Scientology to be recognized as a religion in Europe. In 2005,
the Paris city council revealed that Cruise had lobbied officials Nicolas
Sarkozy and Jean-Claude Gaudin, described him as a spokesman and militant for
Scientology, and barred any further dealings with him.[72][73] Cruise co-founded
and raised donations for Downtown Medical to offer New York City 9/11 rescue
workers detoxification therapy based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard. This drew
criticism from the medical profession,[74] as well as firefighters.[75] For
these activities and others, David Miscavige awarded Cruise Scientology's
Freedom Medal of Valor in late 2004.[citation needed]

A controversy erupted in 2005 after
he openly criticized actress Brooke Shields for using the drug Paxil
(paroxetine), an anti-depressant to which Shields attributes her recovery from
postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter in 2003. Cruise
asserted that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance, and that
psychiatry is a form of pseudoscience. Shields responded that Cruise 'should
stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing
postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them'.[76] This
led to a heated argument between Matt Lauer and Cruise on NBC's Today on June
24, 2005.[77] Medical authorities view Cruise's comments as furthering the
social stigma of mental illness.[78][79] Shields herself called Cruise's
comments 'a disservice to mothers everywhere'.[80] In late August 2006, Cruise
apologized in person to Shields for his comments.[81] Scientology is well known
for its opposition to mainstream psychiatry.

On January 15, 2008, a video
produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Cruise was
posted on YouTube, showing Cruise discussing what being a Scientologist means to
him.[82][83] The Church of Scientology said the video had been 'pirated and
edited', and was taken from a three-hour video produced for members of
Scientology.[83][84] YouTube removed the Cruise video from their site under
threat of litigation.[85]

Cruise's more open attitude to
Scientology has been attributed to the March 2004 departure of his publicist of
14 years, Pat Kingsley. He replaced her with his sister, fellow Scientologist
Lee Anne DeVette, who served in that role until November 2005.[86] DeVette was
replaced with Paul Bloch from the publicity firm Rogers and Cowan.[87] Such
restructuring is seen as a move to curtail publicity of his views on
Scientology, as well as the hard-sell of his relationship with Katie Holmes
backfiring with the public.[88][89]

Filmography

Main article: Tom Cruise
filmography

See also Biography portal

United States portal

Film portal

Scientology portal

Tom Cruise (disambiguation)

Brat Pack (actors)

List of people from Louisville,
Kentucky

List of Scientologists

Supercouple

Tom Cruise: Unauthorized (1998)

Tom Cruise: All the World's a Stage
(2006)

References

1.^ a b c d Tom Cruise at the
Internet Movie Database

2.^ a b c 'MGM Partners With Tom
Cruise and Paula Wagner to Form New United Artists'. PR Newswire.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. November 2, 2006. Archived from the original on
November 16, 2007. http://www.unitedartists.com/popups/pr/release_08.html.

31.^ 'The Devil In The White City
movie, trailer,review,pics,pictures,poster,news,DVD at The Z Review'.
Thezreview.co.uk. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080705065258/http://www.thezreview.co.uk/comingsoon/d/devilinthewhitecitythe.htm.
Retrieved October 31, 2008.

87.^ 'Cruise Control Shifts Gears'.
Yahoo! Entertainment. November 8, 2005. Archived from the original on May 21,
2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060521205326/http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/eo/20051108/113151894008.html.

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